I lived this exact confusion. Before I niched down and got clear on what I wanted to do (Air) and who I wanted to serve (Founders & C-Suites), every decision felt overwhelming. Platforms, pricing, how to build partnerships - it all felt complex. The moment I had clarity, those same questions became suddenly obvious. I would give the example I often give. If someone comes to me and says, "Lary, I have $5,000 to invest, what do you think I should do and where should I invest it?" My question back would be, "Well what do you want your $5,000 to do for you? What do you want the outcome to be?" - If they said, "I don't know," I would say, "Just leaving it in the bank." - If they said, "I would like to double it in five years," now all of a sudden we have a narrow band of options in order to achieve this outcome. It's so much easier.

@Jim Flach Airlines sell from their own live inventory.That’s the source of truth. Online travel agencies do not own that inventory. They have to pull it from the airline and store it on their own system. To keep costs down, many OTAs cache pricing and availability and refresh it periodically, not in real time. So when you see a price on an OTA results page, it may be based on cached data. That fare could already be gone. The real-time check usually happens only after you select the flight and move toward checkout. At that point, the OTA validates the seat directly with the airline. If the fare bucket has sold out, the system updates and you see “price no longer available” or a higher fare. That jump is not the airline tracking your IP address. It’s simply outdated cached data being corrected once the system checks live inventory. Different OTAs refresh at different intervals depending on their tech and cost structure. The airline website, as the direct channel, reflects the most up-to-date availability because it is connected to its own inventory in real time.

@Christine Berencz Yep, my favs are people that search for 1 seat. They find a flight and a price they like. They talk to husband, wife, friends, etc.... and come back after a few hours asking for 5 seats this time and thinking the airline it tracking their IP address 🤣

@Christine Berencz Actually, I always left the day is started :) It's end of October, like last weekend, and it was nearly impossible to have a monthly accommodation to go right over those dates, they would always blocked them and jack-up the rates for those 5-6 days.

@Christine Berencz Haha! This topic does get some attention for sure down here, but just like everything, there are 2 sides to every coin and some hypocrisy. Mexico's biggest import is Remittance, to the tune of $60B+ per year, so these are all US dollars coming to mexico, and also contributing to raising the cost of living. It seems more spread out across the country, so harder to notice, vs. an "migrant" community of expats in Mexico's Condessa neighbourhood. The paying tax thing, many locals are ninjas at avoiding paying any taxes, so...

I'm part of a MasterMind where I would consider that most people in there are ahead of me business-wise, financially and personal growth. It's intimidating at first until you realize we are all dealing wit the same problems as humans :)

@Christine Berencz 😆

@Kelly LaPorte What was the Default? Do you remember? Just checked a client's profile and says: Opt-Out - and not sure if it's voluntary or a Default setting.